Results 3,441-3,460 of 34,618 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Okay. Is there anyone else we can ask to try to give us that assurance?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: It is vague. We have not yet received a satisfactory answer.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Okay. We are going to write to the Department to clarify this point. Members can see that it is an ongoing issue. It has been before this committee for a couple of years. It was before the last Committee of Public Accounts as well. We will note the correspondence. We will not publish it because it is from a private individual. We will ask the Department to respond. I think that under...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Can we agree to send this correspondence to the Department, accompanied by a request for a detailed response? We do not want to hear what its policy is: we want to know what it is doing to ensure voted moneys that are set aside for children with special needs in schools throughout the country are being used specifically for such purposes. It would be dreadful to think that this is happening...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: We need to ask those questions. I am not sure whether boards of management have to audit the income of schools, such as capitation grants and other grants. Maybe members can tell me whether they do. I am not talking about teacher salaries because they come straight from the Department. It goes without saying that all schools are tight on money. I am involved in my local community...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Tight.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Okay. We will ask the Department for a detailed response. I know there are major gaps in whole-school evaluation reports. If a school building is collapsing, it will not be covered in the whole-school evaluation report. We will ask the Department to respond to what has been highlighted.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: I thank the Deputy. We will send a transcript of this discussion to the Department with a covering letter in order to ensure it is familiar with the issues members have raised. We will note this item of correspondence and we will contact the Department directly on it. Next is No. 2445, from Deputy Kate O'Connell, who is requesting further information from Bord na gCon regarding the post...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Okay. We will do that. It is agreed that we will ask for a detailed response. The final item today is No. 2446, dated 10 October, from Deputy David Cullinane, who is requesting further information from the National Transport Authority. We sent a detailed list to the authority arising from last week's meeting. The Deputy has a few other issues he wants to raise. Is it agreed that those...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: We probably will not sit if the Houses are not sitting, in which case we will have to postpone that meeting. It is up to members but if it is a sitting week, we should schedule a meeting. If it is not a sitting week, the members can decide-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: I do not know. Of course, it could make a decision and then be forced to change it, depending on events. The point is well made and there is a question mark over that meeting because we are not quite sure what will happen. If the Dáil is not sitting, will we take it that this committee will not sit? If the Dáil is sitting that week, we will proceed with the meeting. Is that agreed?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: I do not think people will come up if the Dáil is not sitting. We understand where we are on that and the difficulty will be rescheduling. The next item is a meeting with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection followed by a meeting the following week with the Office of Public Works, OPW. There are chapters in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on both....

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: We want that organisation here that week because there is activity going on, outside of construction, which is under its remit. I refer here to getting patient records systems in place and so on. Children's Health Ireland commenced functioning on 1 January this year but work was being done on that project prior to that. That body has not been before this committee yet but it is a...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: It is not ring-fenced but is in with general taxation. It is not like the environment levy, which goes into the environment fund.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: I do not have an issue with it going inper sebut if €400 million in carbon tax goes in this year, I would like to see projects across various Department, adding up to €400 million, that are related to carbon emissions reduction.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: No, what happened in this year's budget-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: No. We will not get into the politics of this but what was achieved in the budget is that there will be transparency vis-à-visthe extra €90 million that will be raised in carbon tax this year. What I, as Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, want to know, is how the other €400 million-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Yes I used that word. I am not mentioning how it was achieved but it was achieved. We have transparency on the increase in the carbon tax but nobody mentioned the bigger issue which is that we are already collecting €400 million in carbon tax every year. Let us see how the funds already collected and those being collected are spent. We have opened the door but this committee will...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: The Revenue Commissioners will have to come before us soon because there have been big issues around debt write offs by Revenue.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Yes, it will appear before that committee shortly. We will not set a date for our meeting with Sport Ireland until after the aforementioned joint committee meeting because we do not want to duplicate work.